The present invention relates to a sealing member which has excellent low friction properties and sealing characteristics and is less liable to damage a counter member. In particular, this sealing member is useful as a sealing member for a scroll type compressor.
The scroll type compressor, in which a spiral wall is provided on one face of a scroll member substrate, compresses fluid by allowing the respective scroll members on a fixed side and a moving member to claw with each other and rotate in a decentering status at the spiral wall. A tip seal is inserted at bottom of a spiral groove, and it is known that sealing characteristics and sliding characteristics of this tip seal are closely related to operational efficiency.
Conventional materials for preparing a sealing member include thermoplastic resins such as polyether ether ketone and polyphenylene sulfide and the materials obtained by adding a fluorocarbon polymer, a pitch series carbon fiber and organic powder to a polyphenylene sulfide resin.
Such materials enable injection molding to be used to increase production and thus reduce costs. However, in the case where the conventional sealing members prepared by molding the above materials are used under recent applied conditions which have become more severe as compared with previously, particularly under high loads, the conventional sealing members are not sufficiently satisfactory due to inferior frictional characteristics, excessive shrinkage, and damage to the counter member.